Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Luxembourg Takes a Leak

The ICIJ has obtained a trove of leaked documents detailing the nefarious tactics of massive multi-nationals to evade taxes all over the world using the "squeaky clean on the outside, corporate friendly on the inside" Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and their secret tax agreements.  See this video from the ICIJ to see how it all works.  The Corporate cast of villains includes a cast of usual suspects including AIG, Deutchse Bank, IKEA and more.  According to Wikipedia:
In March 2010, the Sunday Telegraph reported that most of Kim Jong-Il's $4bn in secret accounts is in Luxembourg banks.[45] Amazon.co.uk also benefits from Luxembourg tax loopholes by channeling substantial UK revenues as reported by The Guardian in April 2012.[46] Luxembourg ranked third on the Tax Justice Network's 2011 Financial Secrecy Index of the world's major tax havens, scoring only slightly behind the Cayman Islands.[47] In 2013, Luxembourg is ranked as the 2nd safest tax haven in the world, behind Switzerland.
 Additional ICIJ background is here and here.

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